Among whom also we all had our behavior in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
All Commentaries on Ephesians 2:3 Go To Ephesians 2
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
In perfect agreement with reason was that indignation which resulted from his desire to maintain discipline and order. When, however, he says, "We were formerly the children of wrath".
and, "We also were by nature children of wrath; ".
But the apostle, too, had lived in Judaism; and when he parenthetically observed of the sins (of that period of his life), "in which also we all had our conversation in times past".
he must not be understood to indicate that the Creator was the lord of sinful men, and the prince of this air; but as meaning that in his Judaism he had been one of the children of disobedience, having the devil as his instigator-when he persecuted the church and the Christ of the Creator. Therefore he says: "We also were the children of wrath "but "by nature.".
, but by the election of their fathers, he (must have) referred their being children of wrath to nature, and not to the Creator, adding this at lasts "even as others".
Similarly, too, (when writing) to the Ephesians, while recalling past (deeds), he warns (them) concerning the future: "In which we too had our conversation, doing the concupiscences and pleasures of the flesh."
